Elvie Breast Pump Review: Does It Work?

Tell all ya friends and neighbors!

Boobs! Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about whether or not the Elvie breast pump actually works or not.

Getting pregnant and staying pregnant has been a hard road for us, but when our Collins came into this world finally, I was honestly so excited to try breastfeeding again.

We had a ROUGH go with Charlotte, but made it through a year. It was not glorious and beautiful and cool and precious like all these Instagram mamas told me it would be.

I cried, she cried. I screamed, she screamed. I sweat a LOT and barely even made it to the year mark because I was pumping at work and wasn’t able to be home with her and with me having PCOS, my supply was affected which I didn’t even know was a thing at the time.

And I got walked in on so many times pumping that eventually I got pissed and would just go pump in my car because it was easier.

May have given a few people a show, but hey – whatever.

Breast pumps are an essential part of life for many moms who choose to breastfeed. It’s something they need to buy and use regularly, so it’s understandable that they would want the best product possible to ensure they have the most comfortable experience possible.

For this reason, it’s important to do your research beforehand to find the perfect pump for YOU. I want to help, sure, but don’t let me be your end all be all if you haven’t researched elsewhere!

Elvie Pump Review

Breast pumps come in a wide variety of brands and styles on the market today. However, there are a few main ones that are worth looking at before settling on one.

Elvie wasn’t around when I had Char so I had the Medela Freestyle and I actually really liked it. It worked really well. There’s a new fancy schmancy version of it out now called the Medela Freestyle Flex which is even smaller and more compact. TECHNOLOGY, AMIRITE??

But knowing we had made advancements as a society, I realllllly wanted to try the Elvie pump. And I also wanted to try it out a while before I told all you fine people about it.

Elvie Features

Hands Free

The Elvie pump is hands-free, sometimes referred to as a wearable pump. It’s actually what originally drew me to it because having a 3 year old dude to chase around and threaten with time out every 15 seconds requires 2 hands so the thought of being able to stick this bad boy in a nursing bra and have 2 hands to wrangle other kids was appealing to me.

The breast pump has a closed system, which means that it collects and stores milk inside closed tubes. This not only prevents contamination, but also allows you to store pumped breast milk in the same reusable milk container in which you pump.

Different Expression Modes

Much like with any other breast pump, you have both different levels of suction and also 2 different expression modes to simulate let down and then slower suction. The Elvie pump automatically switches from stimulation to expression after a short period of time.

Small and portable

It’s….small. Oh! And portable!

Seriously, though. I just traveled with it for the first time to our family beach trip and it was so easy to bring with me. It doesn’t take up a lot of space. You can store it anywhere in your house and even pack it away easily in a bag if you need to travel with it.

Few Parts

This was one gripe I had with the Medela that I had with Charlotte. Although portable, I felt like it had a million parts and pieces. The lack of parts that can get lost or damaged with the Elvie is a win. Plus, less parts to lose also means less parts to clean.

An App

You don’t have to use the app, but why wouldn’t you if you can? It tracks pumping sessions, amount of milk pumped and you can set a timer so you’re not pumping accidentally an hour later lolz. There is also a feature that will turn the pump off if it senses that the bottle is full.

Elvie Pump Pros

• Its hands-free operation allows you to do other things with your hands while still pumping. Herding cats, perhaps?
• Comfy and compact, making it easy to take on the go
• Rechargeable and lasts up to an hour on a single charge
• Comparable in price to other breast pumps on the market, but makes up for it with the convenience
• No special milk bags required to pump
• Extremely easy to put together. There’s not a lot of parts and it means it’s also less to clean
• As gentle on your boobs as a contraption can be that’s designed to pull milk out of your body

Elvie Pump Cons

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• App is very rarely right when it comes to amount of milk pumped. You can change it, but it’s kinda annoying that you have to do that almost every time.
• Battery dies quickly after a number of uses. You have a battery indicator icon on your app, but there’s nothing to tell you it’s about to die. It can die in the middle of a session and let me tell you how pissed off you’re gonna be when that happens. Trust me.
• There are times I don’t feel it gets the same strong suction like my Medela did.
• I have real small boobs, so if you’re well endowed, I honestly am not sure how this would work for you, but I assume it would be just fine since the people who designed this did a lot of testing.

Questions You May Have (FAQ)

Elvie vs. Willow Pump

The 2 most popular wearable breast pumps on the market are the Elvie and the Willow. But there were some initial drawbacks with what Willow offers that made me decide against it.

Willow Breast Pump Drawbacks

Milk Bags

This was number one for me. The Willow uses special milk storage bags for each pumping session. While it’s super convenient to just be able to pump directly into a bag, they’re hella expensive to replace.

For me, I would rather be able to pump into a bottle and pour into a disposable bag to freeze as needed. Since I’m home with our girl, it’s not often that I need to freeze anyway. Typically I’m pumping because she didn’t express everything or because I’m trying to feed her more quickly with a bottle.

Only One Nipple Shield

This one also was a huge drawback for me. When you buy the Willow pump, you have to choose what size nipple shield you want and even though you can measure and figure it out, who has that kinda time?

What I love about the Elvie breast pump is it comes with 2 sizes and you can try them on to figure out which one will work better for you.

Conclusion: Do I recommend it?

I will absolutely say it works. Wearable breast pumps are futuristic and fancy, ha! It makes it possible to go out alone without any bother or worries when you have a newbie with ya.

I would totally recommend this if you’re leaning in the wearable breast pump direction!